Trent Grisham and Xander Bogaerts homered in the third inning and Seth Lugo took a shutout into the seventh inning of his team debut as the San Diego Padres defeated the visiting Colorado Rockies 3-1 Sunday afternoon to earn a split of their season-opening series.
Grisham homered to center off Rockies starter Austin Gomber with one out in the third for the game’s first run. The Padres center fielder drove an 0-1 pitch 419 feet for his 12th career homer against the Rockies.
Jose Azocar followed with an infield single up the third-base line to bring up Bogaerts, who hit his second homer in as many games — pulling a breaking ball 413 feet, the ball landing in the second balcony of the Western Metal Building down the left field line at Petco Park.
Lugo, who joined the Padres as a free agent last December, allowed one run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts over seven innings. He threw only 93 pitches.
Colorado’s only run was a one-out home run in the seventh by Ryan McMahon.
Kris Bryant and Charlie Blackmon hit back-to-back singles in the first to put Rockies at the corners with one out. But Lugo retired C.J. Cron on a comebacker and McMahon on a fly to center. After Blackmon’s single, Lugo retired 14 straight Rockies before Brian Serven led off the sixth with a single.
Lugo was making his first regular-season start since 2020 after exclusively coming out of the New York Mets’ bullpen in the past two seasons.
After Lugo departed, Luis Garcia struck out two in a scoreless eighth and Josh Hader picked up his first save of the season with a perfect ninth.
Free agent addition Bogaerts went 6-for-14 in his first four games with the Padres with two doubles, two homers and five RBIs.
The four-game series drew 174,915, a record for a four-game series at Petco Park. The game was played in two hours and three minutes.
–Field Level Media
